Studio Musik

Pergolesi completed his Stabat Mater a few days before his death, on 17 March 1736, prompting comparisons with another mythical figure, Mozart composing his Requiem. It is framed here by three more masterpieces of the pianto genre in a similar spirit of bittersweet sadness.

Harmonia mundi is proud to welcome the exceptional countertenor Carlo Vistoli as a new exclusive artist.

When Mozart took up the popular genre of the serenade, it was to transcend it and lend it new lustre. A festive masterpiece of simplicity and emotion, his Gran Partita quickly became a genuine ‘hit’! Thanks to the distinctive, spellbinding timbres of their period instruments, the members of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin give a unique flavour to these two extraordinary serenades, over which there blows – as it were – a tremendous wind of freedom.

For her first solo recital disc on harmonia mundi, Sunhae Im has chosen four cantatas dealing with the myth of Orpheus. The figure of the mythical singer, whose songs moved even wild beasts and inanimate rocks to tears, has fascinated composers ever since touching the listener s emotions became the programme of the musical work of art and offering a wide range of possibilities for musical depiction: the melodious charm of Arcadia; the dances during the wedding celebrations of Orpheus and Eurydice; the abrupt change of mood at Eurydice s death; Orpheus daring descent into Hades; and finally the subjugation of the underworld deities and even death itself through expressive solo singing.

After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the ‘caro Sassone’ (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period. This version reconstructs the work in its original conception, the only one to combine explosive topicality with extreme dramatic cogency. As a result, this tale of amorous intrigues against a background of Roman history, the ‘prequel’ to Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, emerges more fascinating than ever.

Exquisite dialogue The church cantata very quickly came to occupy a privileged place in Bach's output, but it was in his Leipzig period that he explored new stylistic possibilities for the genre in several cycles. The third of these, mostly scored for relatively small forces, features in these Dialogkantaten three fine examples of the 'madrigalian' type: in their arias, recitatives and chorales, the composer deploys a poetry that does not exclude audacity and an eloquence worthy of opera. These fervent musical conversations are here conducted con brio thanks to the rapport between two singers as moving as they are inspired.

“The music of [Paul] Wranitzky was in fashion when it was new because of his natural melodies and brilliant style. He treats the orchestra well, especially in symphonies. I recall that, in my youth, his works held up very well in comparison with those of Haydn. Their premature abandonment of today has been for me a source of astonishment.”

Early in the 1780s, Mozart began attending soirees at the home of music patron Baron van Swieten, who owned an extensive collection of Bach and Handel manuscripts. Mozart began copying Bach’s fugues for his own studies and made arrangements of Handel oratorios for performance - both would provide much of the stimulus for the counterpoint in several of his latest works. This album gives a glimpse, though only a narrow one, into Mozart’s Bach studies.

Die armenische Pianistin Marianna Shirinyan gehört zu den kreativsten und gefragtesten Solistinnen und Kammermusikerinnen weltweit. Als sie im Jahr 2006 beim Internationalen Musikwettbewerb der ARD in München gleich fünf Preise erhielt, begann für sie eine steile Karriere.

Die armenische Pianistin Marianna Shirinyan gehört zu den kreativsten und gefragtesten Solistinnen und Kammermusikerinnen weltweit. Als sie im Jahr 2006 beim Internationalen Musikwettbewerb der ARD in München gleich fünf Preise erhielt, begann für sie eine steile Karriere.